At a time when gas prices are at record highs, more than 370 ofFairfax County's police cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles aretaken home by officers every day, with taxpayers footing the billfor their gas, maintenance, insurance and tolls.
Officers estimate that the vast majority of the vehicles traveloutside Fairfax, as 70 percent of the department's 1,431 officerslive outside the county. In many cases, they live far outside,including in Annapolis and West Virginia, and in Orange,Spotsylvania, Rappahannock and Stafford counties in Virginia.
For many years, Fairfax has had no policy governing how far atake-home car could go or how it could be used when an officer wasoff duty. That allowed the cars to be taken on hunting or fishingtrips, officers said. Some officers who have a take-home car don'thave a personal vehicle.
Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer is creating rules about thelocation and use of take-home cars, and an e-mail he sent toofficers recently said that some of them might have to seek'alternative transportation or a personal vehicle if they have beendependent on a take-home vehicle.'
But after reducing the fleet over the past year, he is not takingadditional steps to take away the cars or give more cars to officerswho live in Fairfax.
The six police departments adjacent to Fairfax have policiesallowing officers who live in their jurisdiction to take a car home,both as a crime deterrent and an incentive to keep officers livingin their department's county or city. Many of those are markedpatrol cars. But Fairfax has no such policy for in-county cars, adifference that angers patrol officers.
Rohrer said he does not have enough vehicles, although his fleetof 1,304 is the second-largest in the area, behind Prince George'sCounty. About 30 percent of Fairfax's fleet goes home with officerseach day, which is comparable to neighboring departments.
The main differences are how far the cars travel and whether theygo out of the department's jurisdiction. Even though Fairfax doesnot keep records of how many cars leave the county or where they go,officials generally acknowledge that most of them leave thejurisdiction. Other similar-size police departments allow only asmall percentage of their cars to leave the jurisdiction. InMontgomery County, only 10 percent of take-home cars leave thecounty. In Prince George's, it is 3 percent.
Rohrer defended the assignment of 373 take-home cars as necessaryto maintain readiness for emergencies, adding that he would like toadd about 20 more take-home vehicles. The cars, all unmarked butfully equipped, make it more efficient for officers to get back toFairfax.
But patrol officers, who comprise the majority of the departmentand do not get take-home cars, point out that cars are assigned toentire units of detectives and commanders, which are rarely calledout on nights or weekends. For example, cars are assigned to 52burglary detectives and supervisors, 11 financial crimesinvestigators, eight school resource officers and commanders of non-emergency divisions such as the police academy and administrativesupport, personnel resources and technical services bureaus.
Rohrer said issuing take-home cars is cheaper than hiring moreofficers to work nights or weekends. 'Right now, we are leveragingour resources and bringing them in case by case,' Rohrer said. 'Carscost money? Yes, they do cost money. So do people. And more peoplecost more money than cars.'
Rohrer's new policy will require future hires to live within 30miles of the county line to get take-home cars. Officers alreadywith cars will not have to relinquish them, the chief said.
Michael Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute forPublic Policy, said long-distance driving not only runs up gas andmaintenance costs but also adds mileage to the vehicles so that newcars must be bought sooner. 'If they're taking them home toFredericksburg and back, there's something about that that doesn'tsit well,' Thompson said. 'And my bet would also be that before theytake it home, it's filled up at a county gas pump.'
Thompson said making cars available to the lower-paid patrolofficers would also serve as an incentive to stay with the policedepartment rather than moving to higher-paying federal jobs, whichoften lure well-trained officers.
Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) saidthat given the high price of gasoline, the county has to be carefulabout its cars. 'Take-home vehicles have to be limited to a strictas-needed basis and within a reasonable radius of the county,' hesaid. He added that 30 miles, as proposed by Rohrer, is too far.
'In defense of the chief, this is a difficult thing to do,'Connolly said. 'He has to manage the morale of the department. Butthe taxpayers cannot afford to be sending hundreds of vehicles homelong distances from the county. If it made sense once, it doesn'tseem to make sense any longer.'
Supervisor Pat S. Herrity (R-Springfield) said he wanted to seemore cars stay in Fairfax. 'I am fully supportive of our uniformedofficers that live in Fairfax County driving more cars home,'Herrity said. 'It's something we should be working toward.'
Patrol officers grumble quietly, afraid to offend their superiorsand their colleagues with cars. 'Once members of the department aregiven a take-home car, they then move far away from the county,' oneofficer wrote in a letter to the supervisors. 'How much gas andpollution are they causing? Would they live that far away if theyhad to buy their own gas and drive their own car? Would they chooseto live in the county?' Many officers say they live outside Fairfaxbecause of its high cost of living. According to county records, theaverage salary for police officers in Fairfax was about $86,000 lastyear.
About 100 officers are officially on 'standby' status at any onetime, Rohrer said. The additional 273 vehicles are issued, Rohrersaid, for emergencies when multiple officers and commanders need tobe called to duty on short notice.
As an example, he cited the department's SWAT team, which has 12officers. To have a SWAT team on duty every hour of the day wouldrequire an additional 36 officers, he said.
The chief said that hiring one officer costs about $100,000,figuring in salary, benefits and other factors. Instead, all 12 SWATofficers are given county vehicles and 'on-call pay,' which is oneextra hour's pay every weekday and two extra hours pay on Saturdayand Sunday.
'What's the cost of 12 on-call pay [officers] and gas?' Rohrerasked. 'I know it's cheaper' than hiring 36 more officers. 'It isexpensive, I don't disagree. But it's more expensive to hire people.. . . I think right now what we're doing is more cost-effective andefficient.'
In most units, only one person is officially designated as 'oncall' and given on-call pay. But often an entire unit of five to 10detectives has cars. Rohrer said they all have cars in case he needsmore than one person from a unit in an emergency.
Even the department's critics agree that officers in SWAT,homicide and narcotics units need cars and are frequently calledback. But among some detective units that are seldom called in, fewor none of the investigators live in Fairfax, meaning they run uphigher gas costs and take longer to return to the county when calledin.
Gas and maintenance costs for take-home cars add up. In the 12-month period ending April 30, county records show, Fairfax policeused about $3.5 million in gas, at an average cost of $2.54 agallon. The take-home cars used about $1 million of gas. The countydoes not pay taxes on the gas it buys, county officials said, andpays about 50 cents a gallon less than the public is charged and 62cents less a gallon for diesel. So the county is paying about $3.50a gallon, or a dollar per gallon more than last year.
Similarly, police vehicle maintenance cost the county more than$5.1 million in the 12 months ending April 30. The take-home carswould account for about $1.5 million.
Police were unable to provide a breakdown of what types ofvehicles are being driven home. Police records show that of the1,308 vehicles in the fleet, more than 240 are SUVs or pickuptrucks, which are not very energy-efficient.
The Fairfax police officers' union, which doesn't always agreewith the chief, supports Rohrer on take-home cars. Officer MarshallThielen, the union president, said: 'If we were staffed as we neededto be staffed, we wouldn't need county cars going home as anoperational necessity.'
The two area departments most similar to Fairfax in size of forceand county are Montgomery and Prince George's. Both have agreementswith their unions that allow almost all officers living in thecounty to have a car but strictly limits who may take a car out ofthe county. As a result, all but a few officers who live outsidethose two counties and have an assigned car must park it near thecounty line and drive their personal cars home.
